Difference in the Conceptions of Self as subject of human rights

[My presentation paper at the special workshop of the 24th IVR World Congress in 2009]
Difference in the Conceptions of Self as subject of human rights
between the West and Japan
Can Confucian Self be strong enough to exercise the positive liberty
in the authoritarian society ?

Prof. Akihiko Morita

Charles Taylor raised the following question;
Can people who imbibe the full Western human rights ethos, which reaches its highest expression in the lone courageous individual fighting against all the forces of social conformity for her rights, ever be good members of a “Confucian” society ?
(Charles Taylor, “Conditions of an unforced consensus on human rights” in Joanne R.Bauer and Daniel A. Bell eds., The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights , Cambridge University Press, 1999, p.129.)

The modern Western discourse of rights involves a certain philosophical view of humans and their society, of which the cornerstone concept is the subjective right.

In this special workshop, I would like to take up the cultural difference about the conception of the Self as subject of human rights between the West and the North East Asia in order to explore a plausible means to incorporate the human rights norm, which I believe is universal in nature, into the non-western society such as Japan.

In this regards, I follow the dual distinction of the human rights presented by Taylor, namely human rights as legal language and its underlying philosophical foundation.
( The notion of (subjective) rights both serves to define certain legal powers and also provides the master image for a philosophy of human nature, of individuals and their societies. Charles Taylor, “Conditions of an unforced consensus on human rights”, p.127.)

My goal in this exploration is to find out and articulate the proper conception of self and society, based on its history and tradition, which can best serve as underlying philosophical foundation for the human rights norm.
I also accept Taylor’s contention that to know who you are is to be oriented in moral space. I hold that any society has own social moral order in which its member can develop and retain his/her unique identity.

My tentative propositions are as follows.
1) While the Japanese state is relatively liberal, Japanese society is not.
2) Northeast Asian societies, China, Korea and Japan, embrace the Confucian tradition even though the trajectories and the forms are different.
3) Shinto Confucianism is not the only possible conception of Neo-Confucianism.
4) Any society has own social moral order, embracing its own conception of humans and society, supported by the collective rituals developed in its history.
5) The Confucian conception of self as a center of relationship and as a dynamic process of spiritual development can be compatible with the modern conception of self in the West as subject of human rights.